Bail denied for husband in missing mother case – NBC4 Washington

A Northern Virginia man accused of hiding his wife's body while she remained missing will remain in jail for now, after a judge denied his request for bail on Friday.

Naresh Bhatt is accused in connection with the disappearance of Mamta Kafle Bhatt nearly two months ago.

Mamta Kafle Bhatt was last seen in Manassas Park in late July. The 28-year-old nurse's disappearance sparked a major search and community outcry as the mother missed her daughter's first birthday.

Prosecutors essentially had to present all the evidence to keep Bhatt in custody during Friday's lengthy hearing.

They said they have video that shows the defendant dumping bags of trash in various dumpsters in Northern Virginia, including at an apartment complex where he was taking his daughter to a babysitter and at a trash compactor in Falls Church. They also have video that shows him purchasing rubber gloves, knives, extra-large storage bags and cleaning supplies after his wife disappeared.

Cadaver-sniffing dogs attacked the Bhatts' master bedroom and master bathroom, indicating there was a body in the house, prosecutors said.

Naresh Bhatt searched the Internet for a diagram of a brain and “a chicken farm near me,” prosecutors said.

Packed suitcases and passports suggested that the defendant posed a flight risk, prosecutors said.

They also said that body camera footage from Naresh Bhatt's first police interview – days before he reported his wife missing – showed him saying she had disappeared before and could be in New York or Texas.

“We have heard horrific testimony,” said Holly Wirth, a spokeswoman for Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s friends and family.

Mamta Kafle Bhatt's family and supporters urged the judge not to release her husband on bail.

“I don't think any of us understood the magnitude of this crime,” Wirth said. “We all wanted to know where Mamta was, when we would get her back, where we would find her, where we were looking, and the truth is, we're not going to get her back.”

They called on prosecutors to file more serious charges against the suspect and praised the work of the Manassas Park police.

“Ultimately, we are here to fight for justice,” Wirth said. “We will be Mamta's voice until the end of the trial.”

In a bail motion filed this week in Prince William County District Court, Bhatt's attorney said a detective made a “false statement” that prosecutors used to obtain an arrest warrant.

In the criminal complaint, a detective initially said investigators had found evidence that a body had been dragged from the Bhatt family home in Heather Court.

The detective later clarified that investigators had only found one body that had been dragged from one room to another inside the house.

Court documents say a Manassas Park police captain said in a Sept. 4 statement to prosecutors that the investigator admitted “she may have used the wrong words.”

The captain said the detective stated he had worked more than 30 hours straight and had no malicious intent.

The defense claims prosecutors mistakenly waited until September 16 to inform them of the Manassas Park police captain's testimony.

The Manassas Park community is supporting each other amid developments in the case of missing woman Mamta Kafle Bhatt. News4's Derrick Ward reports.

Naresh Bhatt's lawyer, in his bail application, also sought to raise doubts about the blood detection system used by investigators in the Bhatts' house and also whether it was the accused who allegedly used a computer in the house to search the Internet for opportunities for remarriage after the death of his spouse.

The trial against Naresh Bhatt is scheduled for December.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.

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